How long does it take to write a grant?
How long does it take to write a grant application?
Anywhere from a few hours to several hundred. In our conversations with customers, a full proposal typically takes between 50 and 400 hours, depending on the funder and the size of the request. Short foundation forms sit at the low end and federal research applications at the high end. Most of that time goes to finding the right opportunity, reading requirements and rewriting material you already have, which is the part that can be cut.
Last reviewed October 7, 2026.
Where the hours go
- Finding the right opportunity
- Searching portals and foundation sites, and reading announcements to rule most of them out.
- Checking eligibility and requirements
- Working out whether you can apply, and listing every section, form, attachment and page limit.
- Writing the narrative
- The need, the approach, the evaluation and the case for your organization, shaped to the funder's criteria.
- The budget and attachments
- A budget in the funder's format, letters of support, and the documents funders ask for again and again.
- Review and submission
- Reading against the scoring criteria, fixing gaps, and getting through the portal.
How to cut it
Rule out what you cannot win before you write, keep one strong description of your organization to reuse, and ask for letters early. Here is a plan for a grant due in days.
Quillify takes most of the hours that are not writing. It searches grants, contracts and community lenders in one place, reads the full announcement to tell you whether you qualify, lists every requirement, and drafts the proposal from your own documents. An SBIR takes Quillify's clients about five hours on average, from the decision to apply to submission. One customer had been spending 200 to 250 hours on each.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
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